I thought this blog would be a great way to capture day to day memories... big or small. Our Canadian friend Carpie has nicknamed Joshua "Tiny T" as in Tiny Twister because of the way his tiny physical presence can cause a mass implication. What a great way to tell about the lives of all of us! No matter how small we feel, we have far reaching ties to the ones around us.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The messages we receive from the media, the politicians and the economists are all so bleak and miserable. The stuff that our children hear and see with todays so called role models is worrysome. Many of us are affected by these miserable sentiments. We start to get hung up on the things we hear and see and forget about all the things in our life we have to be thankful for. I am taking an extra effort to live with an attitude of gratitude. Practicing gratitude is a workout of our soul. People that have a strong sense of gratitude or thankful ness do not necessarily have more than others… they simply recognize and see more beauty in their lives. If you condition yourself to look on the bright side of life, life will miraculously get brighter. I am making gratitude a daily practice of mine.

• I am thankful for my husband and my 2 beautiful children

• I am thankful my mother is healthy and able to help me

• I am thankful my sister is my best friend

• I am thankful that I am healthy

• I am thankful I have a job that pays well and is secure

• I am thankful for good hair days.

• I am thankful for my favorite tv shows because they are a diversion

• I am thankful for toastmasters to show me how to become a better speaker

Will you join me? I would like you to all state one thing that you are thankful for.

Feeling Gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. Give your gifts every day.

Recently I took my kids on a 7 hour road trip back to my home town in NY. It made me realize how different this excursion was compared to the roadtrips my family took when I was a kid. I got each of my kids buckled in their seats, handed them their electronic devices, snacks and ear-buds and no one spoke for about 3 hours until a rest stop was needed. It was a very relaxing trip. Everyone arrived at our destination calm, refreshed and ready for our adventures.

This was different than the road trip I took in 1977. My parents had just bought a brand new car. Boy was it a beauty. It was an 8 passenger Pontiac LeMans Station wagon. Wowwie. She was two toned with light cream and that ever popular woodgrain. I remember taking the test drive with them. They let me sit in the back back for the road test. The seat in the wagon portion actually faced BACKWARDS. It was like I was on space mountain! Shortly after my parents took ownership of the family hotrod we had plans to go to Philadelphia. All of us. My mother, father, sister, my 2 grandmothers, my grandmothers beagle and myself. It would be a true test of strength for the new family truckster. Back then there were no electronics and no earbuds. There was mydads 1950’s rock and roll cassette tapes or whatever channel my dad chose on am/fm radio. My sister can still sing every 50’s song that we hear word for word!!

On family trips, my dad was ALWAYS the driver. I think I saw my mom drive with my dad in the car 3 times in my entire life. He liked to drive and use his CB radio. His handle was BIG MAC (our name was McIntyre). We all had CB handles… back then it was open mic night all the time. You could talk to the truckers and to other families. You could complain about the road conditions or warn each other of upcoming traffic… or you could just talk about nothing and pretend to have your own version of cannon ball run. My mom’s handle was Aquarius. Wasn’t that cool? My sister was a teenager and her handle was Magic Girl. Awesome. But I was 6. My handle was NOT very cool. My dad told me to pick something that I liked most. So Breaker, Breaker, Mint Chocoloate Chip Ice Cream hit the airwaves!! Oh, I wish I was kidding.

The seating configuration for our road trip was interesting. See my 2 grandmothers did not get along….at all…..ever. Grandma McIntyre was old, and never really walked well. She had various illnesses and was a very bitter, mean woman. She was extremely conservative and did not like conversation. We know she loves us because she had to, but she REALLY loved her beagle Cindy-Sue. Grandma Fiducia was the opposite. A very sweet, gentle grandma. She spoke very little English having been off the boat from Sicily years prior. She prayed a lot and LOVED her grandchildren more than life itself. We had to keep them separated because without fail Grandma Fiducia would do or say something to make Grandma McIntyre upset. SO. Grandma M. sat in the front passenger seat. Because I was the smallest and youngest the coveted middle seat position in the back was usually mine. I usually had to either sit with my feet up on the hump or straddle it for the duration of the trip. But with a packed car, My mom, my sister, and Grandma Fiducia sat in the back seat this time. Then came the question… What do we do with Ann Marie? I could either sit between my dad and the mean grandma in the front OR I could sit in the back, back. Unfortunately though, the back, back seat could not be up because of all the luggage. If I chose the back back, I would have to sit freely on the platform where all the luggage was stowed… with the beagle. It was fun back there. With no seatbelt laws, I just flaled and whipped around with every bump in the road. On extra-large potholes, I even hit my head on the ceiling. So we set out on our trip. My dad made sure that our windows were all sealed up tight because he didn’t want the air conditioning to escape… that made the smoke from his cigarettes stay tightly in the car. Ahhhh the smell of second hand smoke. There were no GPS systems, so my mom had to use a paper map sprawled out over the entire back seat area. The Map was always a conversation that leads to fighting. My dad didn’t believe my mom knew how to read a map; my mom would get frustrated with my dad’s questions. It was a joyous time.

Back then children did not need to be constantly entertained. I had no toys for the trip, no games, no electronics. All I could do for fun was pull at my sister’s hair from behind her, ask “are we there yet” about 1 million times and when that didn’t work pretend that I had to go to the bathroom, just so we could stop for a few minutes. After 7 hours of travel we successfully managed to keep the grandmas from fighting, the sisters from killing each other, the parents from getting lost and all of us somehow escape lung cancer from 2nd hand smoke. We arrived!!!!! But before we could head out for a fun time on vacation, we needed a nap to recuperate.

I wanted to take this time today to tell you all about my honeymoon. You probably think I am going to tell you how I went on this beautiful vacation, with whispering winds and palm trees, clear blue oceans, the white hot sands and the romance…oooh the romance. NO. This was not my honeymoon. Have you ever heard people say the Honeymoon is over…well mine was almost over before it even started!

We went on a delayed honeymoon 3 months after we got married. This was because my husband was taking college courses at the time and we had to wait for a break. We flew down to Miami and the airplane ride alone was an adventure. There we were on this turbulent flight and WHY…WHY do the put 2 large people in front of each other? Dutch was sitting with his arms tight against him the whole time. His knees we up by his throat. He was very uncomfortable. We get to the cruise ship and we wait…and wait…and wait to get on. When we finally make it to “our room” it was gorgeous. It had a balcony, a stocked bar, a king bed. It was beautiful. They put our suitcase in front of the rooms and this was our room…. But it wasn’t. They made a mistake. They put our suitcases in front of the wrong room. OUR room was really down the hall. It was a tiny inside cabin. No window. It had a fake curtain hiding the inside brick wall. The bathroom was barely big enough for my husband to fit in. He LITERALLY had to keep the door open to sit down so he had room for his knees. Well there we were. All of a sudden he tells me he wants to go home. IS HE KIDDING ME? HE WANTS TO GO HOME? This Honeymoon is going to be over, before it even starts!! Well, even though we were newly married, I already knew how to work him. I said, ok, let me see what I can do. I left the room…. Walked around the boat by myself. I listened to the emergency exit training and went back to the room. I told him that I spoke with the captain and crew and that it would cost us more to leave the ship now then to just stay on and enjoy the 4 days. By this time, he had enough time to cool down and he no longer wanted to leave. He just needed time to adjust. We decided to go deep sea fishing as one of our excursions. The ship docked and we got off in Cancun. We see some locals on the side of the road with a sign for DEEP SEA FISHING. GREAT! We gave these locals $250 cash. They barely spoke English. They told us to follow them and we did. We followed them into a car with another local that did not speak English. They take off driving down back alleys and dirt paths. They are talking back and forth in Spanish. Dutch and I are looking at each other in fear. I don’t care how big Dutch is… he was not going to save us from death by dismemberment. All of a sudden we drive out of the darkness in this beautiful, calm, somber ocean bay. There were yachts docked everywhere. They led us to this boat with a 2 man crew. Jorge and Pedro…15 years later I still remember their names. They had a cooler full of Corona’s and all the stuff we needed to fish! I caught the first fish. It was so hard to reel in. It pulled and pulled. I remember Dutch screaming KEEP THE ROD TIP UP. REEL HARDER, REEL HARDER. I finally said “I’m DOING THE BEST THAT I CAN!!” I threw in a couple choice words that I won’t repeat now. It was a 4 foot mahi, mahi! It was awesome! Dutch was next. He got a fish on. He reeled and reeled. I gave him a sarcastic “GET THAT FISH IN… Reel HARDER”. He quietly apologized stating that it sure was harder than it looked. It was a blast!

We made it through our honeymoon and consider it to be a learning experience. When our plane touched back down in Pittsburgh, he turned to me and said.. DON’T EVER make me fly again. It was one time of our lives that we always look back to and laugh. We had some challenging and scary moments and the Honeymoon was ALMOST over before it even got started!

About Me

I am a NY transplant that went to college in 1992 - 1995 at Slippery Rock University. I was ready to move back to NY when I was offered a good job. I decided to spend 1 year getting experience at that job and then move back to NY. Well just about 9 months later, I met Dutch. Yes, we met at a bar. He was adorable and the stories we have about how we met is found in my postings. So, after meeting him, I decided once again to give it a year. By the time the year was over... I was in love. There was no moving back to NY. I have been in Pennsylvania 17 years now and feel it is my home. I have a connection here. I am always fond of my hometown in NY, but I am definately a Pennsylvania girl now.